Amanda Rawlins Lesson Critique of Tim Daigneau

This lesson was my first observation of the student, and therefore it is unknown if
these activities were tied to assessment, but I am able to give specific feedback for each
section of the lesson, including fluency, word study, and reading/comprehension.
During the fluency section of the lesson, the student was given choices in what to
read, which is so critical for struggling readers. I also commend your positive feedback
during the first fluency reading. You made many positive remarks such as Good job,
which will build confidence and propel the student to continue trying something that may
not be easy. The choice of text was also very appropriate as the student was clearly
engaged in the zombie/ogre book (I would love to know the name of that book!). One
area to improve for fluency might be to share with him a timed repeated reading graph so
he is motivated by the growth he sees on the graph. Another positive piece of the fluency
section was when the student struggled over a word in the book (passerby) and you
prompted the student to look for parts in the word by covering part of the word, which is
a great decoding strategy. Overall, the student seemed engaged in the fluency section of
the lesson and even wanted to share a connection to the picture of Uncle Sam.
For the word study section, I assume the video cut off without you knowing,
because the uploaded file only showed me 0:28 seconds of him sorting. In that time,
however, I liked how I heard him reading the words as he sorted and he seemed to be
immediately engaged.
The final section was the reading/comprehension portion of the lesson. You did a
great job reminding the student of what he read last time, which allowed him to activate
background knowledge for reading before beginning the Magic Tree House book. You
also had him make predictions before reading, which are shown to improve
comprehension when you connect it to what really happened. I also liked how you
reassured him after he tried a tricky word, which will encourage him to keep trying.
Something to consider for future tutoring would be how to respond when the student
reads a word incorrectly. If you let him finish the line before saying anything or giving
the correct word he might be able to self-correct the mistake without teacher help. As a
teacher of first graders, I often have a hard time with this myself! This will be important
for him to do as a reader so he can build his ability to monitor for meaning.
Another positive point was after the first pages of the text the student read, for
you stopped the student to make a prediction about what might happen, which is a great
way to encourage him to monitor his comprehension. In order to learn from the errors
and give you an idea of how to prompt him before reading the next time, you can take a
running record of his reading (maybe you did this and I just cant tell). If you notice in
the running record he is not able to read multisyllabic words, you can prompt him for this
before reading, or maybe he leaves out small words, leaves off endings, or possibly he is
missing words that are rare in meaning or oddballs in spelling. Having this information
from a running record is really helpful in helping him fine-tune his smaller decoding
errors that can impact his fluency and ultimately the meaning.
As with the fluency section, the student seems engaged in what you are doing and
willing to use expression and struggle through some tricky words. Once the student was
done reading, great job ensuring he knew what a summary was before beginning that
activity. I also liked your strategy of SWBS, as this is a great scaffold for your larger

strategy of summarization. I would suggest telling him about writing the summary before
reading so he knows his job will be to pull out the main ideas while reading. He seemed
to have pretty good comprehension of how they were choosing to follow the Patriots, so I
am not sure if this section was shorter because it was not a main focus based on
assessment or if his reading took longer than expected. Finally, it was an excellent choice
to model the strategy SWBS using the Three Little Pigs, which was a familiar story. I
also like how you coach him through using the strategy as it is the first time he is using it
by asking him questions such as, Who are the characters? for the Somebody part. (the
we do part of the gradual release model). Hopefully his teacher will continue your
work and use this strategy with his classroom!
Overall, your student was very engaged in the lesson portions I viewed. I also
commend you on your text choices as they were obviously tailored to your students
interests. Your modeling of fluent and expressive reading was highly entertaining for
your student and certainly contributed to his success. As I stated before, I would love to
know the name of that zombie text you used for fluency!

Name ______________________________
Lesson Reflection/Peer Coaching Grading Rubric:
(20% of course grade)
Over & above
the requirement

Assignment:
PART I: Self Reflection
The lessons activities were consistent with the
students assessed reading and spelling levels as
evident in at least three examples that were listed.
(45 pts)
Indicated strengths of lesson (10 pts)
Presented examples effective activities that
demonstrated on-task and engaged student
behavior (10 points)
Reflected on changes that could have been made
and indicated why (10 pts)
PART II: Peer Observation/Coaching
Notes included were thorough & reflective. Met
with colleague to share observations & provide
feedback. (5 pts)
Indicated strengths of lesson and an area for
improvement (10 pts)
Provided concrete examples of strengths & areas
for improvement (10 pts)

Grade: __________/100pts.

Comments:

Fulfilled the
requirement

Missing or lacks
details